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Cancer Expert Says GM Crops Can Be Healthier (Summary)

According to an article in the Independent, Sir Walter Bodmer, principal of Hertford College and one of Britain's leading geneticists, attacked Lord Melchett, the executive director of Greenpeace, for demanding that genetically modified crops be proven absolutely safe.

Sir Walter, former director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and a world authority on human genetics, also called the Soil Association "utterly irrational" in its definition of organic farming which excludes transgenic plants. He was quoted in Science and Public Affairs, saying that, "It is much more likely that there is a risk from newly introduced crops than from genetic manipulation of known crops. The greatest ecological catastrophes have occurred through the introduction of alien species."